My Reluctant Journey: Lessons Learned on the Path to Retirement

What does retirement mean to you? Do you look forward to it with anticipation as the entry into a well-earned life of leisure, or do you dread the idea of becoming irrelevant or even invisible? Possibly you are somewhere in between—ready to spend more time following your interests and discovering new ones, but unsure as to what that would look like and how well it would fit you. Retirement has always been heavily loaded with ambiguous feelings. Now women are struggling with these questions in unprecedented numbers as they face the ends of careers that have been a source of structure, purpose and identity. To add to the complexity, this is the first generation of women to have careers in large numbers so there are few models or templates to follow to “get it right.” Dr. Edy Stoughton’s chronicle of her first year after retirement is both deeply personal and universally applicable. It is not a recipe for how to live the perfect life of retirement, but rather an uncompromisingly honest look at issues we all deal with in this important transition. Readers will identify with Dr. Stoughton’s refreshingly open discussion of lessons she learned about such issues as continuing a life of significance and relevance when one no longer has a “title,” creating new beginnings rather than settling for diminished possibilities, and developing a lifestyle of passion and meaning. My Reluctant Journey speaks to all these concerns in fresh and relevant ways.